Free Republic

A German police officer escorting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Stuttgart has died after a car rammed into the Hungarian leader’s convoy. While on the way Monday to the airport after watching his national football team compete against Scotland in the UEFA European Championship in Stuttgart, Germany the previous night, Prime Minister Orbán’s motorcade was hit with tragedy. According to a report from the German daily Bild, a 69-year-old woman ignored signs for road closures as the Hungarian leader’s convoy made its way through the city, ramming into the police motorcycle of a 61-year-old officer accompanying Orbán’s car. The strength...

Passengers were thrown to the roof of a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner during a sudden altitude loss that resulted in at least 50 people being injured Monday on a LATAM Airlines flight. The plane experienced a technical issue that caused "strong movement" on the flight from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand, according to The New Zealand Herald. Of the approximately 50 people who were injured, a dozen were transported to local hospitals and one person was left in serious condition. The injuries included broken bones and head and neck injuries, per passenger Brian Jokat. Jokat said the plane "just dropped"...

A speaker at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland has called on globalist elites to push for farming to be labeled a “serious crime.” Speaking from the WEF’s summit at the luxury Swiss ski resort, “Stop Ecocide Now” founder Jojo Mehta argued that fishing and framing should be considered equal to “genocide.” Mehta insisted that fishing and farming for food should be a “serious crime” while arguing that it is immoral to make money from these industries. “We have this cultural, very ingrained habit of not taking damage to nature as seriously as we take damage...

More than one in every ten fatal crashes in California is a hit-and-run, according to a new study involving federal traffic data. The research, commissioned by Suzuki Law Offices, looked at National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures between 2017 and 2021. Of the 18,137 fatal crashes in California during that period, 1,901, or 10.48%, involved drivers who fled the scene. That’s the highest total number of fatal hit-and-runs in the nation and significantly above the national rate of 6.33%, the data showed.

Per the latest polling from far-left ABC News and the Incredible Shrinking Washington Post, His Fraudulency Joe Biden’s job approval rating has crashed to 33 percent. In comparison, his disapproval rating has climbed to 58 percent. In this poll of adults, ABC/WaPo adds that Biden’s 33 percent job approval is “worse than Trump’s low as president (36 percent) and the lowest since George W. Bush from 2006-2008.” The internals for Biden are just as awful. Only 28 percent of Independents approve of the job he’s doing. Only 31 percent of women approve, even after he won (allegedly) 57 percent of...

Former President Trump said in an interview that aired Monday that he predicts the U.S. economy will crash and that he hopes it does so within the next year. In the interview with Lou Dobbs, Trump, the current front-runner in the GOP presidential primary race, explained that, if he were elected again, he would not want to serve a term similar to President Hoover’s — who took office when the economy was stable but later oversaw the start of the Great Depression.

Not off to a good start. A brand-new, self-driving shuttle bus suddenly crashed into another carrier in Orlando, Fla. — just two days after the shuttle service officially hit the streets. The SWAN shuttle — short for Shuttling with Autonomous Navigation — collided with a full-size bus in the city’s downtown area Tuesday, cops said. The crash was caught on camera by a passenger testing out the city’s hyped new service.

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida man wearing only socks and a “small covering wrapped around his waist” was arrested Wednesday after multiple hit-and-run crashes, according to sheriff’s officials. The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said an SUV was speeding on Old Kings Road when it struck multiple cars and continued down the road. A Florida Fish and Wildlife officer tried to pull over the driver, identified as 22-year-old Stephen Peterson, of Port Orange, but he did not stop the car. The SUV then drove onto Old Kings Elementary School’s property and drove around the running track before getting back onto...

Legendary TV star Dick Van Dyke reportedly was injured when he crashed his Lexus in Malibu after losing control behind the wheel. The 97-year-old actor’s car skidded in wet weather conditions before smashing into a gate on Wednesday morning, TMZ reports. The ordeal left him with a bloody nose and mouth, as well as a possible concussion. Police arrived to find the Hollywood veteran behind the wheel of his Lexus LS 500, TMZ added. He was treated at the scene by paramedics.

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. - A Titusville man was arrested after he crashed into several cars across Brevard County during a high-speed chase while driving a stolen car Tuesday. Police said they attempted to stop 36-year-old Robert Lee Ramon Strachan of Titusville along the A. Max Memorial Bridge Parkway at 12:06 p.m. in response to a reported stolen 2021 white Chevy Silverado. Strachan allegedly fled from police driving "recklessly in wrong lanes and forcing other motorists off the road," police said. Strachan hit a 2014 Honda CRV near the intersection of South Street and Cheney Highway, left the scene, and "intentionally"...

A 15-year-old died when a group allegedly stole a Maserati and crashed it early Sunday in Florida. According to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, 15-year-old Keondrick Lang, 15-year-old Mario Bonilla, and 16-year-old Malachi Daniels had been looking for unlocked cars in the Saint Petersburg area, Insider reported Sunday. The group apparently located an unlocked Maserati with the keys still inside the vehicle.

An unidentified man reportedly set his car on fire and drove into a U.S. Capitol barricade before exiting his vehicle, firing a weapon indiscriminately and then shooting himself late Saturday night. U.S. Capitol police have yet to confirm the incident, which PBS first reported. There were no reported injuries aside from the driver. The man's motive in the incident is unknown. The incident reportedly lasted only a matter of moments, and officers did not have time to return fire before the man turned his weapon on himself.

Following Friday’s catastrophic new credit data, which saw the fewest new loans in half a decade, and after this morning’s report that Chinese authorities allowed a further cut in mortgage loan interest rates for first-time homebuyers in another push to prop up its property market and revive a flagging engine of the world’s second-largest economy, few expected any upside surprises from Monday’s economic data dump out of China, but even fewer expected anything quite as bad as what Beijing just reported. With Europe, UK and the US all on the verge of recession, China just boldly took the step to...

The price of oil crashed on Wednesday after the UAE reportedly said it would encourage fellow OPEC members to increase oil production levels. “We favor production increases and will be encouraging OPEC to consider higher production levels,” said Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE’s ambassador to Washington. This statement was first reported by the Financial Times.

This article is prefaced with a few facts. The U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) reported 122 helicopter accidents, with 51 fatalities, in 2019. There were 92 accidents and 35 fatalities in the first year of COVID dystopia (2020) when aircraft were grounded for months. In fact there was a 107-day period in 2020 with no fatal helicopter accidents, which is unusual compared to other years. Further, small, private aircraft crash relatively-frequently, even before the COVID-19/vaccine era. But the difference since 2021 – more people are dying in said crashes. USHST data measure fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours every month....

Rasmussen, one of the country’s most reputable pollsters, found that His Fraudulency Joe Biden’s job approval rating has crashed to a record low 39 percent. His disapproval rating of 59 percent tied his record high.

A Texas (San Antonio) driver ended up dead Wednesday night after crashing her vehicle and then firing shots at three people who tried to come to her aid, according to a report. As for the gun-wielding driver, who was in her 20s or 30s, a nearby neighbor shot her dead after coming to the defense of the three Good Samaritans who were fired upon, FOX 29 reported. Those shot by the suspect were a 50-year-old man who died at a hospital, a woman in her 50s and a male in his late teens, the report said.

There were five passengers and one pilot aboard the aircraft, identified by officials as a floatplane, operated by the sightseeing company Southeast Aviation. There was mist and light rain in the area at the time of the crash, according to the Coast Guard, with moderate winds and two-mile visibility. The distress beacon had put the aircraft near Ketchikan in the vicinity of Misty Fjords National Monument, a popular tourist attraction often viewed from planes that can take off and land on water. The five passengers were guests aboard a Holland America Line cruise ship, the company confirmed. The Nieuw Amsterdam...

Four people died and one person was in critical condition after a hot air balloon they were riding in hit power lines in New Mexico’s largest city, police said Saturday. The crash happened around 7 a.m. on Albuquerque’s west side, police spokesman Gilbert Gallegos said. No identities have been released but fire officials said two males, including the pilot, and two females died. The multi-colored balloon skirted the top of the power lines, sending at least one dangling and knocking out power to more than 13,000 homes, Gallegos said.

A Marine Corps fighter jet collided in mid-air with another plane during a refueling operation in a remote desert area of Southern California Tuesday afternoon. But the pilot ejected and the other aircraft landed safely, the military said. The F-35B jet collided with a Lockheed Martin KC-130J tanker around 4 p.m., according to a statement from the Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in nearby Arizona. The other plane reportedly had eight crew members on board. None were injured.